Crude has edged lower in Asia-Pac trade, as.....>

OIL: Crude has edged lower in Asia-Pac trade, as U.S. officials and source

reports drew questions/worry re: what will come after the signing of the

impending Sino-U.S. phase 1 trade deal, as well a seemingly continued hard line

stance from the Trump administration vs. Huawei. Brent & WTI both sit $0.20

lower than their respective settlement levels at writing, holding ~$0.25 ranges

thus far.

- Post settlement trade saw a downtick in crude after reports pointed to a

surprise build in headline crude stocks in the latest API inventory estimate.

The reports also pointed to unchanged stocks at the Cushing hub, an as expected

build in gasoline stocks and a larger than expected build in distillate stocks.

Weekly DoE inventory data is due later today.

- Recapping Tuesday's news flow, TASS source reports suggested that OPEC+ may

choose to postpone the group's March summit, which the source suggested would

trigger an extension of the group's current production deal through the end of

June (currently set to expire at the end of March). Elsewhere, the EIA's latest

STEO saw an uptick in the Agency's 2020 U.S. crude output estimate.